Growth Market Digital Coupons
Interview with Philipp Timm, COO of savi marketing GmbH
Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) is a marketing approach where brands directly address customers, for example through couponing campaigns or cashback promotions. This provides companies valuable insights into consumer behavior. Wirtschaftsforum spoke with Philipp Timm, COO of the leading D2C promotions specialist savi marketing, about the ongoing digitalization in this growth market.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Timm, what exactly does your company do?
Philipp Timm: savi, as an expert in Retail Marketing and D2C Promotions, has been reliably bringing consumers to the PoS for 50 years. The company originated from Valassis as a clearing house, operates internationally, and is one of the market leaders in Programmatic Couponing, targeted cashback campaigns, and sustainable loyalty programs. For brands and retailers, this means: real purchasing actions and proven additional sales plus valuable buyer data. And thanks to BaFin certification, reliable processing of payment flows in the background.
Wirtschaftsforum: You personally joined savi four years ago to digitize the coupon clearing system.
Philipp Timm: Yes, a lot has happened since then. Even though coupons are often still redeemed in paper form, the proportion of coupon redemptions via smartphones has increased significantly and now stands at almost 70%. This is partly because most retailers now offer their loyalty programs via a mobile app, where coupons play a significant role. Digitalization also includes the entire clearing process, which runs in the background. For example, savi has been developing electronic clearing with German pharmacies for over a year now to digitally transmit coupon redemptions to savi.
Wirtschaftsforum: How long has savi been involved in the D2C business?
Philipp Timm: We have 50 years of expertise in D2C marketing. Before being renamed savi, we were known as Valassis. In addition to our location in Hamburg, we also have offices in the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain, from which we implement promotions worldwide – including in the USA and Canada.
Wirtschaftsforum: What services do you offer besides clearing?
Philipp Timm: Through our central platform, we have been offering cashback campaigns for three years, where we bring brands into direct dialogue with end customers. Customers receive their discount from savi, but in the name of the brands, reimbursed – via PayPal or transfer. Cashback is well received by end customers; in Germany, we have around one million participants per year. Cashback campaigns provide many insights into consumers that are of great importance to our clients.
Wirtschaftsforum: Which industries do you mainly work with?
Philipp Timm: Our clients are primarily brands from the home and babycare sectors. However, the food category has also been increasing for several years. We are also driving digitalization in the OTC products segment with purchases in pharmacies.
Wirtschaftsforum: How has the Corona pandemic affected you?
Philipp Timm: After an initial decline, there were record months, due to short-time work and the fact that purchases were better planned and people paid attention to coupons. After the pandemic, this has normalized, but with inflation, people are paying more attention to their expenses and like to use coupons. In addition, the offerings of mobile coupons provide end customers with a simple user experience. Therefore, we note a growth in the number of redeemed coupons of over 10% compared to the previous year.
Wirtschaftsforum: What are your focuses for the year 2024?
Philipp Timm: Retail Media is the unique opportunity to present brands and products where their relevance, visibility, and acceptance are high, their path to the customer is very short, and their context is most natural. Retail Media occurs not only at the POS but along the entire customer journey. I am convinced of this holistic approach, which is why we will expand our offerings in 2024 with the help of our products and services.